– Neil Irwin examines one of the key ideas underlying the U.S. Democrats’ economic plans, being that workers need to have meaningful choices rather than being trapped by a limited and slanted set of available employers and work structures: Labor market monopsony is the idea that when there isn’t . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links

– Bruce Johnstone notes that rather than further attacking public services which have already been under siege throughout his stay in office, Brad Wall and his government should be looking to question Saskatchewan’s inexplicable giveaways to businesses: Well, if Doherty is looking for some “low-hanging fruit” to make our . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

– Jim Stanford writes about the obvious problems with globalization as it’s currently structured – and the need to meaningfully take into account the public interest before anybody other than the investor class can be expected to participate in the process: The reality is that hundreds of millions of . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andre Picard writes about the widespread poverty faced by indigenous children in Canada – and the obvious need for political action to set things right: The focus of the [CCPA’s] report, rightly, is on the chil… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.- Bill McKibben offers his take on the news that the entire northern hemisphere has reached two degrees Celsius above its normal temperature level, including the increased urgency it creates in reining in climate c… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

Here, on how the Libs’ first major budgetary choice has been to continue the Cons’ dangerous pattern of chipping away at the federal government’s fiscal capacity.For further reading…- Scott Clark and Peter DeVries have previously summarized the… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: New column day

Here, on how the Saskatchewan Party’s mid-year fiscal update shows it hasn’t learned a thing about managing a boom-and-bust resource economy – and how it may take Saskatchewan’s electorate to fix the underlying problem. For further reading…- The mid-… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: New column day

– Andrew Jackson discusses a few of the choices the Trudeau Libs need to get right in order to actually set Canada on a more progressive fiscal path: Progressives who worry about growing income inequality will note two key features of the new government’s tax plans. First, the plan . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

– Laurie Penny argues that Jeremy Corbyn’s remarkable run to lead the Labour Party represents an important challenge to the theory that left-wing parties should avoid talking about principles in the name of winning power – particularly since the result hasn’t been much success on either front. – . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

– Anna Leventhal warns against the danger that even the best-intentioned of charity drives might be seen as replacing the need for social supports: Now campaigns are ubiquitous, and range from book tours to pet surgeries to basic subsistence for marginalized people in crisis. But with crowdfunding increasingly called . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

– Brad Delong discusses the two strains of neoliberalism which dominate far too much political discussion – and the reason why the left-oriented version doesn’t offer any plausible analysis of where we stand: (Bill) Clintonian left-neoliberalism makes two twin arguments.

– Canadians for Tax Fairness offers a checklist to allow us to determine whether the federal budget is aimed at improving matters for everybody, or only for the privileged few. And Andrew Jackson argues that the Cons’ focus should be investment in jobs and sustainable development: Business investment is . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

– Robert Ferdman reports on a Pew Research poll showing that wealthier Americans are downright resentful toward the poor – and think the people with the most difficult lives actually have it too easy: (T)he prevalence of the view might reflect an inability to understand the plight of . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

– Rob Nixon’s review of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything nicely sums up why the book – and the fundamental clash it documents between corporate profit-seeking and the health of people and our planet – should be at the centre of our political conversation: (N)eoliberalism — promotes a . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

– Bruce Johnstone points out that one can’t justify Stephen Harper’s gross dereliction of duty in addressing greenhouse gas emissions based on any system of principles other than climate change denialism. And Tony Burman criticizes the Cons for burying their heads in the oil sands, while pointing out that . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

– Naomi Klein discusses how entrenched corporate control through trade and investment agreements will prevent us from making any real progress against climate change. And Cory Doctorow weighs in on the Cons’ FIPA sellout of Canadian sovereignty, while highlighting the NDP’s petition to stop it.

– Paul Krugman calls out the U.S.’ deficit scolds for continuing to invent a crisis to distract from the real problems with middling growth and high unemployment. And Bruce Johnstone singles out a few of the Cons’ talking points which have somehow become conventional wisdom without having an iota . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links

– Lana Payne discusses the need to address inequality through our political system. But that will require significant pressure from exactly the citizens who have decided they’re not well served by today’s political options – and Trish Hennessy’s look at Canadian voter turnout reminds us of the desperate need . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

– Michael Hiltzik writes about the efforts of the corporate sector – including the tobacco and food industries – to produce mass ignorance in order to preserve profits: Proctor, a professor of the history of science at Stanford, is one of the world’s leading experts in agnotology, a neologism . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

– Bill Kerry writes that extreme inequality serves to reinforce itself – and points out what needs to be done to counter the temptation to kick others down: One of the major difficulties in tackling inequality is the way it coerces many people into accepting and even promoting it. In . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links

– Andrew Coyne sees the disproportionate influence wielded by the representatives elected by a minority of voters in Canada and the U.S. as evidence that both countries should move toward proportional representation: Two systems, both dysfunctional, in opposing ways. Is there nevertheless a common thread between the two? I . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links